In today's mass merchandising market, economical gravity feed type display devices are both in need and in demand. This is true because gravity feed type product merchandising devices promote sales in that they continuously provide shelved products which are readily available and easily accessible to a user or customer at the front portion of the shelf; they enhance removability of products positioned thereon as a user or customer does not have to reach deep into the shelf area to remove products located thereon; they increase product visibility as products positioned on such gravity feed devices will always be located adjacent the front thereof; and they provide a more attractive and organized display. Because many of the modular display units presently in the marketplace typically support the shelf members or display areas associated therewith in a horizontal position only and such non-gravity feed type units have no capability or adaptability for orienting such display areas so as to achieve a gravity feed operation, a need has developed for means to easily, quickly and economically convert such existing horizontally oriented modular devices to gravity feed systems.
The above referenced need has led to the development of a variety of devices for converting existing non-gravity feed type display devices to gravity feed systems. Several of the known existing devices include angular or wedge shaped members, or other support bracket arrangements, which may be positioned on an existing horizontal surface or attached in some fashion to the rear portion of a non-gravity feed type unit in supportive relationship to a substantially flat shelf member causing one end portion of such shelf member to be elevated so as to produce an inclined surface. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,763,796 and 4,886,171 which teach several alternative means for converting known non-gravity feed type displays to gravity feed systems. The devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,763,796 and 4,886,171 are representative of the known gravity feed conversion devices presently available for converting a non-gravity feed type unit into a gravity feed operation.
Although the known devices provide means for converting existing display units having a plurality of substantially flat horizontal display areas associated therewith into gravity feed type systems, all such prior art means still suffer from certain disadvantages and shortcomings. For example, a reduction in usable space between vertically spaced shelf members occurs with conversion devices which retain the original horizontal shelf member and add to such system an overlaying shelf member which is freestanding or supported at one end by a pedestal or other conversion member. These conversion devices also lack stability and strength as they are not structurally integrated or connected to the components of the original display device. Such known conversion devices are also subject to being dislodged or bumped out of position during stocking and/or use and can be easily lost and/or misplaced. In addition, such converted systems are also subject to racking or other movement depending upon the weight and load distribution of the particular products positioned thereon. None of the known prior art conversion devices discloses an efficient, effective and stable means for achieving a gravity feed conversion as is true of the present adapter means and none discloses the use of a single, universal adapter member which, when properly positioned and arranged in association with the shelf members and upright support members of existing modular units, permits a plurality of vertically spaced, horizontally disposed shelf members to be easily and quickly converted to an angular orientation while still maintaining a stable, unitized and vertically aligned system.